The importance of Protein

Have you ever had the goal to lose weight? Or build muscle? Maybe you’ve just wanted to have healthier looking skin and hair or wanted to avoid snacking on unhealthy foods during the day? How about just improving your general health?

Essentially, whatever your goal may be, focusing on getting a sufficient amount of Protein in your diet is a good starting point.

Proteins are naturally occurring compounds in the body that are used for the repair and growth of cells and tissue, I.e. Protein helps build muscle.

Protein is not only used by the body to build muscle though, as it has a whole host of benefits such as improving brain functioning, potential disease prevention, aiding in peaceful sleep and ultimately contributing to a greater life span.

Although it contains the same number of calories per gram as Carbohydrates, Protein actually requires the body to burn more calories just to digest it, which can help towards a greater total calorie expenditure at the end of the day.

Keeping protein consumption high prevents your body breaking down muscle tissue for energy and can help your body tap into fat stores for energy.

A useful tip to help you consume more protein and to set you up right for the day is the 20/20 method. All this requires you to do is eat 20g of protein within 20 minutes of waking up in the morning. This will help fill you up, give you an energy boost and make snacking less likely during the mid-morning.

Most people will see benefits from aiming to eat 1g of Protein per 1lb of bodyweight. So for example, a 165 lb individual (75kg/12st) should aim to eat 165 grams of Protein each day.